About the Conference

The 2014 State Youth Affairs Conference promises to be a major event in the history of Queensland’s youth sector. With over two decades of experience in staging successful youth sector conferences, YANQ, as the peak body for the youth sector will facilitate a conference which aims to bring youth workers and others who work with young people in various capacities together to network, share information, practice wisdom, hear from cutting edge researchers and academics and participate in a number of training and skills development opportunities.

The agenda for the 2014 State Youth Affairs Conference will be informed through consultation with the sector in early 2014. YANQ’s regional workers will lead the consultation process in line with their regional policy and sector development roles.

With Youth Work being under major threat as a stand alone distinct job and with some organisations with no youth sector knowledge or history working with the government to undermine youth work practice frameworks, it is of utmost importance that we regroup as a sector and plan our collective strategy for saving Youth Work practice in Queensland.

We are not alone in facing these challenges. There is much to be learnt from the UK as they are a few years ahead of Australia in experiencing the erosion of Youth Work practices. YANQ will utilise the 2014 State Youth Affairs Conference to bring learnings from other jurisdictions and explore national and international alliances that must be established and strengthened to protect our sector.